The invention is based on a fuel injection pump as generally defined hereinafter. Fuel injection pumps of this type operate at extraordinarily high pressures, and manufacturers of the internal combustion engines for whom such pumps are intended make stringent demands as to the quality of the injection they attain. This applies particularly to controlling both the supply quantity and the supply onset. The quality of this control depends substantially on the operating capacity of the control slide and on the relief bore that cooperates with it. The control itself can be effected via an oblique groove disposed in the pump piston and arranged to cooperate with a diversion opening in the control slide, or by means of a control bore in the pump piston that cooperates with a recess, having at least one oblique control edge, in the control slide. The operating capacity of the control thus depends on both the size of the angle of rotation and the length of the control stroke of the control slide, which is determined primarily by the manner of coupling provided between the control slide and the governor rod. This coupling should furthermore be low in friction and provide favorable lever ratios, and it should avoid premature wear caused by unilaterally overloaded locations.
In a known fuel injection pump of this type (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 21 41 206), a radially oriented tang is disposed on the control slide, with a ball head on its free end arranged to engage a corresponding recess in the governor rod. This known fuel injection pump has the disadvantage that the stroke adjustment and rotational angle that can be achieved are both relatively small, so that this type of coupling attains only a limited operating capacity. A further advantage is that the individual couplings and thus the individual control slides are not adjustable relative to one another, so that adjusting a single cylinder cannot be attained except via the pump piston itself. A further disadvantage of this known coupling is that by using a ball head to transmit the adjusting motion, an overstress load is exerted; this generates high cyclic pressures and causes correspondingly rapid wear.